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The following is a list of kidnappings summarizing the events of each case, including instances of celebrity abductions, claimed hoaxes, suspected kidnappings, extradition abductions, and mass kidnappings.
- The 1976 Chowchilla School Bus Kidnapping
- John Paul Getty III
- Amber Hagerman
- Patty Hearst
- Charles Lindbergh Jr.
- Charley Ross
- Frank Sinatra Jr.
- Adam Walsh
On July 15, 1976, three men in their 20s seeking $5 million in ransom hijacked a busload of 26 schoolkids in Chowchilla, California. They forced the driver and children, ages 5 to 14, to climb through a hole in the ground into a moving van buried in a rock quarry. After sealing the hole, the kidnappers took off, leaving their hostages buried alive ...
When billionaire J. Paul Getty's 16-year-old grandson, John Paul Getty III, was snatched off the streets of Rome in the wee hours of July 10, 1973, the most shocking aspect of his ordeal was that the person with the power to rescue him refused to do so. Getty, then the world's richest private citizen, wouldn't budge, leaving Paul as the five-month ...
The crime could scarcely have been more horrific: In January 1996, 9-year-old Amber Hagerman of Arlington, Texas, was kidnapped by an unknown man who forced her off her bike and into his black pickup truck. Four days later her body was found in a drainage ditch several miles away. Her kidnapping and killing have never been solved. It may not entire...
Publishing heiress Patty Hearst, then 19, was kidnapped in 1974 from her apartmentin Berkeley, California, by a group calling themselves the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA). The SLA, labeled a domestic terrorist group by the FBI, wanted to wage war against the government and take down the "capitalist state." Within two months of her capture, the S...
Around 9 p.m. on March 1, 1932, the worst fears of famed aviator Charles Lindbergh and his wife, writer Anne Morrow Lindbergh, were fulfilled when the couple's golden-haired, 20-month-old baby, Charles Jr., was taken from his crib in their home in Hopewell, N.J. The child's disappearance was reported by his nurse around 10 p.m. and a ransom note, f...
In 1874, Charley Rosswas the fetching 4-year-old son of a Philadelphia dry-goods merchant. On a drowsy July afternoon of that year, he (or so it is believed by some) became America's first known victim of a kidnapping for ransom. Two days after the abduction, the kidnappers sent Charley's father the first of 23 notes demanding $20,000 for the child...
Barry Keenan was in a haze then, flying to the moon on booze and Percodan, but he recalled indelibly the night of Dec. 8, 1963, when he went to a Lake Tahoe, Nev., hotel room and kidnapped Frank Sinatra Jr. "I can see Junior looking at the bullets," Keenan later recalled to PEOPLEof how he waved a revolver in the face of the singer's only son, then...
Adam Walshwas 6 years old on July 27, 1981, when he was abducted while shopping with his mother, Reve Walsh, at a mall near their home in Hollywood, Fla. Leaving him alone in the toy department, Reve returned 10 minutes later to discover Adam had vanished. Two weeks later, she and her husband, John Walsh, flew to New York City to plead on Good Morn...
Jan 30, 2020 · The history of infamous kidnappings in America is long and stretches back centuries. In some cases, the missing are released and recovered alive, while others are not so lucky. Other disappearances remain unsolved.
- Stacy Conradt
- Patty Hearst. When the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) captured Patty Hearst in 1974, the ransom request wasn’t your typical “unmarked bills in a suitcase” extortion.
- Olive Oatman. Olive Oatman may have survived her kidnapping, but she was forever marked by it—quite literally. In 1851, the 14-year-old was traveling through Arizona with her family in search of a place where they could settle down.
- Cynthia Ann Parker. Fifteen years before the Oatman family’s fateful encounter, Cynthia Ann Parker had a similar experience a couple of states over. In 1836, young Cynthia Ann, her brother, and several others were taken when Fort Parker, her family’s residence in Central Texas, was attacked by Comanche warriors.
- Nell Donnelly. There were thousands of kidnappings—including the abduction and murder of Charles Lindbergh’s toddler son in 1932—during the economic hardship of the Great Depression.
Jun 26, 2020 · Amanda Berry, Elizabeth Smart and Jaycee Dugard are among the survivors who pieced their lives back together after lengthy periods of captivity. By Joe McGasko Updated: Jun 26, 2020. Photo: Zach ...
Feb 9, 2024 · These are the stories of how kidnapping survivors like Alicia Kozakiewicz, Elizabeth Smart, Jaycee Dugard and others resiliently survived headline-making abductions.
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Sep 23, 2021 · Some famous kidnapping victims return home, but others were sadly killed by their captors. Several of the most famous kidnapping victims were abducted because their families were rich, and the kidnappers wanted a hefty ransom.
